Bar-tailed Godwit (above) and Whimbrel (below) - please click on images to enlarge as it seems Blogger is over-compressing them again!
As mentioned in the last post, a beautifully bird-filled beach was just a couple of minutes from our cottage on Burray. Unromantically known as Churchill Barrier #4 - the beach, and its causeway connecting Burray with South Ronaldsay, were created when Churchill ordered the blocking of between-island U-boat access into the Scapa Flow to protect the British Fleet - I spent plenty of time enjoying the birds here during our stay.
Ringed Plover - several pairs on territory were joined by dozens of migrants along the strandline
Relatively undisturbed and blessed with mounds of decaying seaweed and organic marine material and protected from brisk westerly winds (when it was very much at its best), it was a magnet for hungry passerines. Wagtails often numbered around 20, with White (above and below) generally outnumbering Pied, and a maximimum of 14 of the former on my last visit.
Wheatears were likewise ubiquitous, with up to eight feeding a little further up the shoreline:
Waders, meanwhile, were also abundant, with up to fifty Ringed Plovers, 80 Turnstones, 12 Purple Sandpipers, 30 Redshanks, the odd Dunlin, Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit and Sanderling, and on the last evening, a fresh-in Whimbrel (my first of the year).
